|
Pretty strong words but truer ones have never been spoken. Many people in this local area already know about Ken’s prowess in and around an automobile. For me it was a recent revelation, having always taken my car to Pep Boys or the dealer to be repaired.
I always read Ken’s column in this paper. It is usually full of useful information by an automotive deity about car maintenance, advice, and repair. It is especially useful and educational for someone like myself. If you read this column with any regularity, you already know that I am probably the dumbest man on the face of the planet when it comes to cars. The instant something sounds even remotely wrong I run immediately to the repair shop in a panic.
I had never met Ken until I was referred to him as part of a package in a recent ill-fated trip to a smog check station. You see, contrary to popular belief, just because we write for the same paper we all don’t know one another. In fact I would be surprised if anyone, short of Dana and Cheri, knows everybody else.
Jack von Bulow doesn’t drill my teeth and I’ve never had my back cracked by Doc Martin. I don’t spend my spare afternoons hanging out at The Book Rack with Diana or getting massages from Walter and Israel. Nor do I have weekly lunches with Martin Cole to discuss the downtown area revival. The only people involved with the paper I see on a regular basis are my wife, Stacey, and Dana Baskin. The latter I usually only see when passing Rose Donuts in the mornings as he is getting his caffeine fix.
After Ken and I were thrust together for the first time while dealing with my wife’s car’s smog problem I appreciated his professionalism. I decided to test the waters with an ongoing problem I had been having with my car. It was something that should have been taken care of a long time ago but all of the other automotive deities scoffed every time I addressed the problem with them, so what did I have to lose?
This problem has been going on for over 2 years and I was at my wits end. It started simply enough. Every once in a while, mainly during the summer when the air conditioning was on, the car would start to lose power. Once I shut off the A/C for a minute, the problem would correct itself and things would go back to normal. Something that appeared to be this simple had to be easy to fix, right? It couldn’t be any kind of a match for the battery of scanners and diagnostic equipment at the dealer’s disposal, or could it?
It was March of 2001, and on the way back from the San Fernando Valley my wife had the car die on her while exiting the 210 Freeway. We had the car towed to the nearest dealer, which was Team Chevrolet in Pasadena, where their crack staff of technicians diagnosed the problem as a bad alternator, which they replaced and sent us on our motoring way.
Of course, they misdiagnosed the problem. In the four trips and a total of 14 days my car spent at O’Donnell Chevrolet in the months leading up to August 2001, nothing was resolved. But seasons change and with the air conditioning not being used, the problem ceased to be a problem. That is, of course until summer once again reared its hot little head and the process started all over again.
Again, my car spent countless hours at O’Donnell Chevrolet, or as I referred to it as my car’s summer home away from home, while they tried to figure out what caused the problem. Always giving my car back telling me that they couldn’t even duplicate the problem, no less fix it. I even gave Pep Boys a couple of shots at it figuring, what did I have to lose? If the problem did turn out to be covered by my warranty I could submit the bill to Chevrolet. The problem had now escalated to the point where it didn’t even require the air conditioning to be on to become part of the equation.
That brings us to this summer, two years since the problem had first started, and now my warranty had expired. I thought, well I have my new acquaintance Ken who had made quite the name for himself at the recently deceased Youman’s Chevron performing his miracles daily. So let’s give Ken a turn at what was becoming one of the true great mysteries. Something similar to why does the bridal industry find Temple City so attractive and why the powers that be in the City Council still can’t seem to attract top name businesses to our downtown area instead of around it?
So last Monday morning I dropped my car off at Ken’s new place of business, or as I have come to refer to it as, the Promised Land. For those of you who don’t know where that is, it is located at the south west corner of Duarte Road and Golden West in the city of Arcadia. Even though it is in Arcadia you won’t have to wander 40 years in the desert to get there.
That was at 8:30 a.m. By that afternoon, Ken called and told me what the problem was, the spark plug cables and plugs should be replaced. What? Something that simple? Not the fuel injection system, not the air conditioning? Wait a minute, what the hell do I know? Oh that’s right, see paragraph two. He said he would order the parts and it would be done by the next day. OK I thought, but given the history with this problem, I’d believe it when I drove it.
I picked up my car the next day as promised, took a deep breath, and got behind the wheel. I drove slowly at first no knocking or jolting when I accelerated, could it be? OK lets give it the A/C test, I cranked it all the way up to high and gave it the gas. By the time I got to the Golden West Expressway, you know between Las Tunas and Live Oak where there are no stop signs, I was jamming and the car was humming like it did when it was new.
My car was cured of a problem within 24 hours that had plagued me for years. Something that eluded specialists who theoretically knew my car inside and out, and Ken figured it out in a few hours. A couple of minor adjustments may still need to be made, but more headway was made by Ken and his little band of automotive apostles than the 20 or more that had preceded them. They also did it courteously, fairly, and with a smile. That makes them Divine Technicians in my book.
So thanks Ken, here’s to the beginning of a beautiful relationship. Amen.
The Shrub Speaks: Secondly, the answer to your question about reconstruction efforts, the answer is, who can do the best job for the Iraqi people?
B.D.’s response: Come on George, where’s the answer in your question?
|
